
AN ADDRESS 



DELIVKRKD BEFOUK THK 



ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 



COLLEGE OF NEW JEKSEY, 



SEPTEMBER, 28, 1842. 



Br SAMUEL J. WILKIN, Esq., 



OF ^KW lOHK. 



PRINCETON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN T. ROBINSON 

1842. 




a 



AN ADDRESS 



BKLIVKHED BSFOHE TUB 



ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 






■r 



COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 



SEPTEMBER, 28, 1843 



By SAMUEL J. WILKIN, Esq., 



OF KiW XOHK. 



PRINCETON : 

PRINTED BY JOHN T. ROBINSON. 
1842. 



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<tr 



40145 






Extract prom the Minutes op the Alumni Association 
OP Nassau Hall, Sept. 28, 1842. 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Association be presented 
to Samuel J. Wilkin, Esq., for the address delivered by him 
this day, and that Prof. Dod and W. C. Alexander, Esq. be 
a Committee to request a copy for pubUcation. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen Alumni — 

After the lapse of another year, we have again 
assembled within the shades of that venerable hall, 
where, in times past, we pondered over the pages of 
science, and imbibed instruction from the lips of age. 

It is pleasing, from the pursuits of active life, to re- 
visit spots consecrated by the recollections of early 
friendship, and the memory of past events. Amidst 
these secluded groves associations were formed, which, 
though long interrupted, have never been forgotten. 
Looking back upon the years that have passed, me- 
mory, tenacious of early scenes, recals a thousand 
incidents which fill the mind with pleasing, though 
melancholy, emotions. Of the brilHant prospects here 
imagined, of the ardent hopes here indulged, but 
few have been realized. How seldom have the scenes 
which youthful imagination had portrayed, been pre- 
sented on the expanded theatre of human life ? How 
many of those whom we here knew, exulting in the 
possession of youthful energies, bounding towards life 
with anticipations of future glory, cut off, in the 
" midst of their days, " have been gathered to the 
homes of their fathers ? But our recollections belong 



to the past — our obligations are due to the present and 
the future. On those to whom Providence has 
imparted the advantages of education, and v^ho are 
surrounded by many and peculiar privileges, the obli- 
gations imposed are neither few nor transient. 

If there be a spot on earth where man may rise to 
the plenitude of dignity and usefulness, it is found on 
the soil to which our destinies are united. Free from 
the influence of long cherished and debasing super- 
stitions ; under the protection of mild, yet efficient 
and salutary laws ; with no privileged orders to subdue, 
by hereditary pride, the energies of mind ; with every 
inducement that can minister to the efforts of honour- 
able ambition, we stand responsible to truth and sci- 
ence — to liberty and religion for the influence we exert 
on the land we inhabit. The world has an interest in 
American effort. Foundations have been here laid, 
and monuments erected, by those who have preceded 
us, which, faithfully guarded, and judiciously im- 
proved, will promote the happiness of man and excite 
the admiration of distant ages. If the Pyramids of 
Egypt, erected by dependent vassals, through years of 
unrequited toil, to gratify the pride of heartless despots, 
and associated with no results, beneficial or honourable 
to the human race ; if structures^ on which a nation's 
energies and a nation's treasures were expended — and 
which are, at best, but receptacles of human dust, 
have, from remote antiquity, attracted the attention 
and obtained the applauses of the world — what limit 
shall be assigned to admiration of those moral struc- 



tures, whose foundations are laid in philanthropy, 
and whose design is to establish right, promote justice 
and improve the political condition of the human race. 
It would seem as if Providence, in directing our an- 
cestors to these distant shores, had designed them as 
*' a chosen seed" to preserve whatever was elevated in 
morals and pure in religion, from ruinous contact with 
prevailing error. The eastern hemisphere was low 
sunk in despotism ; ignorance pervaded the nations, 
and an impure religion had been, for ages, exerting a 
most pernicious influence on the politics and the 
morals of Europe. Establishing her power amidst the 
foundations of the " Eternal City," she claimed unlimi- 
ted authority, and demanded implicit obedience. Fear 
was her mightiest engine ; her judgments were accom- 
panied with terrors, and heard with dismay ; at her 
voice, nations stood rebuked and the proudest mon- 
archs trembled on their thrones. Remote from this 
influence, and the immediate exercise of arbitrary 
power — with difficulties to surmount, and hardships 
to encounter, all the intellectual and physical energies 
of our ancestors were brought into requisition. In 
their secluded abodes every moral feeling and every 
religious sentiment acquired strength and expansive 
energy ; with minds unfettered and self-depending, 
they became stern in their virtues, and soon exhibited 
to the world a race of men to which enslaved Europe 
could furnish no parallel. By their intellect and 
their virtues, a new era was created in government, in 
morals, and religion. The principles, that for centuries 



8 

had lain inactive, were re-asserted and maintained. 
The torch of freedom, that had yielded but a dim, 
■uncertain light, was re-kindled at a purer altar, and 
shone upon the world with a steadier and a brighter 
flame. 

Whilst the enlightened and virtuous of other na- 
tions, are looking in kindness and hope on the moral 
and political developments of this country, anticipa- 
ting results most favourable to the perfection of the 
human character — there are others who view with 
jealousy, our advancement to greatness. For it is not 
in the nature of man to behold principles inculcated, 
that strike at the foundations of their power, without 
feelings of hostility towards those who maintain them. 
Their promulgation, in whatever region of the globe, 
is deemed an encroachment on established systems. 
Re-acting beyond their prescribed limits, they are 
supposed to produce, in process of time, important 
results on remote nations. As yet, we present, in all 
the essentials of national happiness and true glory, a 
striking contrast with the old world. The light which 
has radiated from our system, has penetrated the re- 
cesses of power, and exposed to inquiring minds of 
other nations, the impositions, the injustice and the 
cruelties, which centuries of endurance had rendered 
familiar. The institutions existing in Europe, were 
founded in violence and delusion — the results of that 
rapacious spirit, on which, in barbarous ages, justice, 
humanity and personal rights could make no im- 
pression; although the Reformation and subsequent 



events, within the past century, have produced fa- 
vourable changes in the condition of Europe, there is 
yet remaining in their institutions too much of the 
feudal principle to admit of rational liberty ; nor have 
we reason to hope for any immediate, essential me- 
lioration in man's condition beyond the Atlantic. It 
v^^ill require years to destroy v^hat ages have been ma- 
turing. Power is entrenched behind forms and cere- 
monies, on which time has impressed the seal of sanc- 
tity; sentiments have been implanted that make obe- 
dience a duty and servitude an obligation. Degraded, 
indeed, is the condition, and cheerless the prospect of 
that nation, where the adventitious circumstance of 
birth, determines the right of the few to command, 
and the obligation of the many to obey ; as intellectual 
endowments, in the dispensations of Providence, are 
confined to no orders of men, minds that would shed 
a lustre on the age in which they appeared, oversha- 
dowed by artificial distinctions, are lost to the cause 
of science, of liberty and morals. 

If the nations that are now prostrate under the 
effects of despotic power, civil or ecclesiastical, shall 
ever become fitted for the enjoyment of rational liber- 
ty, they will be indebted for the blessing, to the ex- 
ample we present them ; we have solved the problem 
of man's capacity for self-government. From the 
success of the past, we may derive hope for the future. 
For more than half a century has the beacon-light 
flashed from our hills on the pathway of nations. It 
yet preserves its brightness to direct, and its warmth 



10 

to animate the Pilgrim of Freedom to the altar of his 
devotions. Whether our institutions shall continue, 
as a model for imitation to succeeding ages, must de- 
pend on those to whom they are confided. We can- 
not fold our arms, and, reposing on the labours of our 
ancestors, hope to preserve the liberties they achieved ; 
great political blessings are the reward as well as the 
price of vigilance and constant devotion. They must 
be guarded at every point where experience has 
shown them to be most easily assailed. 

Within the limits of this nation may be witnessed 
the great moral contest on the result of which must 
depend the happiness of future generations. Here is 
the field on which adverse principles may contend for 
precedence. Under arbitrary governments inquiry is 
forbidden. Their security depends on checking the 
progress of the mind in its advances to truth. They 
are safe only when shrouded in darkness. The light, 
by exposing, annihilates their power. Free institu- 
tions, on the contrary, imply liberty of thought and 
freedom in discussion. Investigation is both tolerated 
and encouraged. ; founded in reason, they will abide 
her enlightened judgment. Nor is it an objection to 
their existence, that the same door which admits the 
advocate of truth is opened to the promulgation of 
error. The length and breadth of our country pre- 
sents one vast field in which all may contend for their 
favourite doctrines; as no subject is forbidden, so no 
weapons are excluded. The mental armory may sup- 
ply whatever is required for illustration, for persua- 



11 

sion, or invective. The experience of past ages may 
be applied to present times and existing circumstances. 
History may unfold her ponderous volumes to inform 
us what man is from what man has been. Whatever 
has been discovered by investigation, or established by 
science, in the wide range of human investigation, 
may be invoked to the support of whatever theory in 
philosophy, or whatever doctrine in religion, or what- 
ever principle in government may form the subject of 
public consideration. No prison doors are open to 
inclose the bold investigator in the field of science. 
No inquisitorial racks are employed, by relentless 
bigotry, to extort reluctant assent to religious faith. 
No massive tow^ers are seen, frowning from their 
gloomy walls, on political inquiry. All are alike, 
the objects of encouragement and protection. In this 
national forum, where matters of momentous impor- 
tance to the human race are considered, with his in- 
tellectual armour adjusted, should be found the Ameri- 
can Scholar. Fitted for expanded usefulness, and oc- 
cupying responsible stations in the various depart- 
ments of the government ; filling the learned profes- 
sions, and obtaining the influence they never fail to 
impart, more is expected from him than the cold dis- 
charge of the ordinary duties of a citizen. To him 
much has been given, and from him much will be re- 
quired. He has traced the rise and decline of nations, 
and has witnessed the operation of causes on the for- 
tunes of departed republics. He has heard the en- 
couragements and the warnings of past wisdom. He 



12 

can act towards man in his associated condition, ac- 
cording to the developments of his character on the 
world's great records. The rocks, hidden to common 
observation, on which nations have been wrecked, are 
known to him in their form, their magnitude and po- 
sition. He has experienced the pleasures of an unre- 
stricted cultivation of letters, and for the happiness 
they bestow, he is indebted to the free institutions 
under which he lives. In the seclusion of early study, 
they cast around him every requisite protection, and, 
in days of after exertion, open to his view broad ave- 
nues to dignity and honour. It is his duty, and should 
be his pride, whatever station he may fill, or whatever 
spot he may inhabit, to disseminate free principles, 
to promote the cause of science, and to inculcate the 
necessity of virtue, united with knowledge, as sus- 
taining pillars in the temple of freedom. It serves the 
policy of arbitrary governments to restrict knowledge, 
that wealth and power may be confined to the hands 
of the few. It is the object of free governments to 
encourage, and their safety consists in, a general dis- 
semination- of knowledge. They act on man, irre- 
spective of the circumstances of birth or fortune. 
They rescue him from the degraded condition in 
which despotism leaves him, and by the cultivation of 
his intellectual and moral powers, fit him for extended 
usefulness and the enjoyments of social existence. 
They regard him as a being born to enjoy happiness, 
not to suffer wrong — to be elevated not depressed — 
to be encouraged by the fostering hand of protection, 



J 



13 

not to be frowned upon by arbitrary power, or op- 
pressed by arbitrary exactions. Who so fit to defend, 
sustain and disseminate the principles of free systems, 
as they who have studied the models of antiquity over 
the burning pages of their orators and historians? 
Who so competent to press on the attention of their 
countrymen the delights of mental cultivation and the 
necessity of knowledge, as they who have held con- 
verse with the illustrious dead through the records 
they have left of their experience, their learning, and 
reflections ? Who, with so much force, can urge the 
cultivation of virtue and the observance of morals, so 
necessary to the existence of liberty, as they who 
have witnessed the devastations of luxury on free go- 
vernments, and have seen the mightiest republics 
vanquished in turn by the vices of the conquered? 
Who, in times of peril and public alarm, can so rea- 
dily awaken the sentiments of devotion to public 
liberty, as they who have caught the fervour of pa- 
triotism from fields of ancient glory ? In return for 
the protection they receive and the happiness they 
enjoy, they owe to their country, in peace and in war, 
in prosperity and adversity, their deepest solicitude, 
their most active exertions and the rich treasures of 
their knowledge. 

In the present condition of the world, it will not be 
considered as arrogant, to assert, that to American 
guardianship is confided the cause of civil and reli- 
gious freedom. The responsibility exists, and the 
trust must be discharged. In promoting the happi- 



14 

ness of man, through the medium of free institutions, 
we take, and can take, no counsel from others. It 
is true, that the spirit of the age has modified many 
of the governments of the world, and they now appear 
divested of some of their repulsive features ; despot- 
ism has been compelled to relax its grasp, and privi- 
leges have been conceded to the subject, that were 
formerly deemed inconsistent with the safety of go- 
vernment; but the great characteristic feature, equal- 
ity, without which no system can be free, is unknown 
to them. The horizontal division of society remains, 
having the selected few above and the great mass be- 
neath them. The privileges enjoyed by the subject, 
few and insufficient as they may be, are deemed as 
concessions from sovereign authority, not existing in 
natural justice, as the birthright of man. As for all 
practical and expanded usefulness to the cause of civil 
liberty, on the broad expanse of the globe, we stand 
alone. Our position is one of true greatness, and if 
surrounded with difficulties it is attended with honour. 
Amidst the institutions of the old world, republics re- 
ceive no encouraging recognition; after short periods 
of turbulent existence, they are despoiled of their ter- 
ritories, and swallowed up in the great vortex of sur- 
rounding despotism. The governments, which, under 
the name of Republics, emerged from Spanish domi- 
nation, on the southern portions of our continent, al- 
though in form, free, are in effect despotic. They 
have not the elements necessary for well ordered go- 
vernments. They want intelligence and are deficient 



15 

in virtue. The Spanish emigrants brought to their 
new abodes all the vices and but few of the virtues of 
their ancestors. Their power on this continent was 
established in cruelty and oppression. The spirit 
with which they left their mother country, has at- 
tended them, in every stage of their existence, through 
colonial servitude, to the establishment of separate and 
independent sovereignties. Their annals are but the 
narration of intestine commotions, fomented by ambi- 
tious leaders, aiming at absolute power. They left 
their native land cheered by no hopes of freedom, but 
animated by the prospect, which the new world pre- 
sented, of conquest and plunder. They came, not as 
the friends, but as the enemies of freedom ; not to cast 
unwelcome fetters from their own limbs, but to rivet 
them on others. With them there has been no altera- 
tion of manners, of morals or religion. Their settle- 
ment on this continent, was but the continuation of 
European despotism and bigotry; there was a change 
of abode, but not of principles. The lust of domina- 
tion, and the spirit of lawless adventure, continue 
to be their striking characteristics. Their efforts at 
independence, were but the throes of ambition, seek- 
ing new channels and new objects. They felt none 
of that deep, disinterested, abiding devotion to the 
rights of man; they professed none of those high, 
ennobling, energetic principles, nor that pervading 
sense of moral rectitude, that illustrated the lives of 
our ancestors and sustained them amidst the trials to 
which they were subjected. They have added no im- 



16 

pulse to the progress and no lustre to the cause of 
freedom. Hopes of efficient aid from them, in the 
great effort to disseminate enlightened and free prin- 
ciples are, at best, uncertain and remote. But what, 
more than other causes, has contributed to retard these 
republics in knowledge, in freedom and general im- 
provement, is the establishment of an intolerant reli- 
gious faith as a part of their organization. The union 
of religion with the political institutions of a country, 
is destructive of the purity and utility of both. Our 
holy religion should be left, for its promulgation and 
its influence, to the means provided by its founder. 
It has, in its pure morality, and in the intrinsic evi- 
dences it presents of its divine origin, what will com- 
mend it to the attention and observance of man. All 
it requires from the civil authorities, is toleration, and 
that measure of protection, which is granted to all use- 
ful institutions. The experience of the world has de- 
monstrated, that the union of the church with the go- 
vernment, has resulted either in establishing the eccle- 
siastical over the civil authority, or in degrading reli- 
gion into an unworthy instrument in promoting the 
designs of ambition. These remarks will be found 
true of every religion and every creed ; but they have 
peculiar force when applied to that church whose 
power is interwoven with the institutions, and has 
been so signally displayed on the morals, the intelli- 
gence and political condition of the southern repub- 
lics. They have felt, in every form in which they 
could be assailed, the effects of her influence. Start- 



17 

ing with the bold assumption that she is the only 
church and the true representative of Deity on earth, 
she denounces as heretical and worthy the severest 
punishments all who resist her authority. The 
doctrines of religion must be taken as expounded by 
her. The Bible, that great blessing, vouchsafed to 
man, by his Maker, the exponent of the Divine will 
and the guide to our conduct and our faith — designed 
for study and contemplation, by beings accountable 
for the right use of their faculties, is sealed up, and as 
for any practical benefit to the great mass of mankind, 
might be blotted from the records of the world. 

To insure absolute control in matters of faith, to 
close the door upon investigation, and to retain the 
human mind in bondage, she dignifies ignorance into 
a virtue, by making it the mother of sincere devotion. 
Thus bestowing the blessings of a future existence, as 
a reward for mental debasement. It is not surprising, 
under such circumstances, that these nations have 
made but slow progress in the arts and sciences, and 
that they fail to exhibit those moral and physical 
improvements which their independence w^ould have 
otherwise produced. They are perverted in sentiment 
and subdued in spirit ; superstition pervades the land, 
and until the incubus is removed from their bosoms, 
they will continue, where they now are, in a prostrate 
condition. No nation has ever existed, and no nation 
can ever exist in freedom, prosperity and happiness 
where her authority predominates. National ruin has 
ever been the attendant upon her strides to power. 



18 

That we may not be deemed unjust in our remarks, 
and rash in our deductions, we need but to pursue the 
history of her operations in the nations subjected to 
her power. It will be found that where she was most 
firmly established, she has been most signally destruc- 
tive. By her inquisition, Spain was made a land of 
torture and of blood ; her mind subdued, and her sen- 
timents of honour eradicated, she appears but the 
image of her former greatness, in subverted morals 
and barren fields. Italy, the seat of her power, and 
the theatre of her pageantry and pomp, endeared to 
the scholar by the recollections of early greatness, and 
the monuments which exist of former glory, has been 
made to feel, in all her relations, the effects of her 
influence, with a fertile soil, under a mild and genial 
sun, where nature almost supplies the necessities of 
man, by spontaneous production, oppressed by ex- 
actions, and a prey to bigotry, she presents to every 
friend to knowledge, to liberty and virtue a most repul- 
sive aspect. 

Shall it be said that the desolation which reigns 
over the land was caused by barbarous nations, 
pouring down from their rude habitations, upon her 
splendid cities and fertile plains? The answer is, 
that ages have passed and she remains what the Van- 
dal made her, unimproved in her physical, mental and 
moral condition. She has been kept depressed ; her 
energies are crushed, there is no spirit remaining for 
improvement or generous enterprise. All the noble 
purposes for which man was created are disregarded, 



19 

and his intellectual powers are wasted on superstitious 
ceremonials, disgusting pageantry, and monkish ab- 
surdities. 

Distant, far distant be the day, when her withering 
touch shall be felt on the institutions of this country. 
When her cold and cheerless bigotry shall pervade the 
land of the pilgrims. Remote be the period, when 
her subtle and cruel policy shall be engrafted on that 
tree of liberty, whose branches, of luxuriant growth, 
now cast their grateful shade over the land of the 
brave, the intelligent, and the free ! Without num- 
bering us on the list of her victims, she has already 
offered up too many nations to the genius of desolation. 
Bat in what way is she to be met, by what means 
arrested in the meditated establishment of her influ- 
CQce over this land ? Not by constitutional restrictions 
or legislative enactments ; not by popular excitement, 
and least of all, not by her own peculiar mode of settling 
controverted points, by torture and the sword. These 
are at variance with our established policy ; at war 
with those free principles and that spirit of inquiry, 
which it was the design of our institutions to foster 
and encourage. In the language of an illustrious 
patriot, *' Error of opinion may be tolerated, where 
reason is left free to combat it." She must be met 
with the weapons of argument, on the broad field of 
open and manly discussion. The elements of her 
power must be analyzed ; the effects of her influence 
exhibited, her pretensions to purity must be examined, 
and her crafty policy exposed. She must be met 



20 

with the history of her past crimes, cruelties and de- 
lusions. If we would preserve our institutions in 
their purity and usefulness, every inch of this free 
soil must be disputed with promptness energy and 
zeal ; opposition must be earnest, continued and un- 
compromising. This Institution has already sent forth 
one son of distinguished abilities, learning and piety ; 
who, uniting patriotism to scholarship, has met the 
great enemy to freedom and knowledge in the field of 
successful controversy. For the service he rendered 
to the cause of science, of liberty and morals, his 
name will be cherished with respect, and held in grate- 
ful remembrance within the time-honoured walls of 
his Alma Mater. In contemplating the position of our 
country, removed from the ambitious powers of Eu- 
rope, and the theatre of those mighty contentions 
that have shaken, and that may hereafter affect, the 
nations of the earth — abounding in resources, and 
yearly maturing in strength, we may repose, with con- 
fidence, on our ability to repel all foreign invaders. 
Our danger lies rather in moral than physical causes ; 
in the too great facility with which we adopt the 
habits, the manners, and the sentiments existing, and 
more in accordance with the principles of arbitrary 
governments ; our institutions were the result of the 
combined energies of intelligence and virtue. The 
virtues that were requisite to establish, must be prac- 
tised to preserve the liberties of the nation ; we must 
sustain the principles belonging to our system, reject- 
ing all innovation, change or compromise. American 



21 

sentiments must be defended at all times, in all places, 
and at all hazards. Occupying the elevated ground 
on which human rights are established, we cannot re- 
treat from it either with safety or honour ; others must 
come to us, we cannot go to them. Our ancestors 
achieved a great moral conquest, the fruits of which 
we enjoy ; we must transmit them to posterity, or 
stand forever recreant to duty, principle and honour. 
Whilst our halls of learning shall remain encouraged 
and supported, sending forth their sons imbued with 
the true principles of freedom, into all portions of our 
land — whilst schools for instruction in elementary 
knowledge, with their portals thrown open to all classes 
of our citizens, continue to be fostered, encouraged and 
multiplied, whilst educated men feel an interest and 
exert an influence in cultivating a taste for letters ; in 
founding scientific institutions, and infusing into the 
public mind that disinterested love of country, that 
characterized our early patriots, we shall stand, proudly 
before the world, objects of admiration to the virtuous 
and of terror to the despotic and corrupt. American 
mind must be subdued, before American freedom can 
perish. The citadel of public virtue must be taken, 
before an enemy can approach the ramparts of public 
liberty. A republic corrupted is more than conquered ; 
she has no inherent strength on which to rally, there 
is no will to move, no courage to dare ; the animating 
spirit has departed ; the vital principle is extinct ; she 
presents her neck and the yoke is adjusted ; all her 
monuments of early greatness are destroyed, or exist 



22 

only to be spurned ; honour and patriotism and valour 
are in the graves of her patriarchs, and her succeeding 
annals may be read in the bloody edicts of her con- 
querors. 

Have we not reason to apprehend that innovation 
has already commenced on the sentiments and the 
morals of our country ? As wealth increases, luxury 
abounds, and despotism will close the scene. We are 
too prone to contemplate foreign models, rejecting our 
own ; to seek approbation abroad rather than at home. 
From the culpable sensitiveness we exhibit to the opin- 
ions of foreigners who sojourn, for a season, amongst 
us, we, unconsciously, admit our inferiority and the 
want of a distinctive national character to sustain and 
defend. Forgetting that our government was estab- 
lished as an improvement on existing institutions, and 
to counteract their baneful influence on the happiness 
of the human race — forgetting our claims to superiority 
in political science, and our invitation to the oppressed 
of other countries, to enjoy, with us, the blessings of 
civil and religious freedom, we incline to an imitation 
of those nations whose forms of government we con- 
demn — vainly expecting to reconcile the customs and 
morality of courts with democratic institutions. To 
counteract these tendencies, we must recur to first prin- 
ciples. The earliest, are the best days of a republic. 
To found it requires extraordinary virtues, great moral 
courage, and lofty conceptions of the dignity of man, 
and his right to self-government. The firmer we ad- 
here to the principles, and the nearer we approximate 



23 

to the virtues of the founders of our institutions, the 
surer pledge we shall give of our willingness and abil- 
ity to sustain them. An American, ambitious of dis- 
tinction in whatever dignifies and adorns the human 
character, need not look beyond his own country, 
young as she is, for example to stimulate to generous 
deeds. Where will he find more exalted sentiments, 
more devoted patriotism ? On the pages of what his- 
tory will he discover greater moral results than are re- 
corded in the early annals of his country ? Immortal 
Rome, and the scholar's favourite, Greece, in their 
days of virtuous freedom, had their names of renown ; 
but, at no period of their history, did there ap- 
pear a brighter constellation than pours its ra- 
diance on the pages of American history. How ex- 
cellent in the purity of their morals — how sublime in 
the Doric simplicity of their characters ! How grand 
do they appear in contrast with those mighty robbers 
whom the perverted taste or misplaced courtesy of the 
world has denominated great. With no borrowed lus- 
tre, disfigured by no adventitious ornaments, cumbered 
with no regal honours, they stand out, in bold relief, 
prominent by their virtues, proud specimens of Amer- 
ican greatness. Presented as examples to the rising 
generation, as they are trained in our seminaries of 
learning, for future usefulness, we may trust to the 
result, without looking to foreign lands for models of 
virtue, patriotism and true glory. 



F 



